Java SE 11 and new four-weekly release schedule in Open Liberty 19.0.0.1

Happy new year! I know it’s February but it’s also the first Open Liberty release of 2019. Open Liberty 19.0.0.1 works with Java SE 11 (ta-dah!) and provides support for the standard HTTP Forwarded and X-Forwarded-* headers. Open Liberty 19.0.0.1 also marks the first release in our new four-weekly release schedule, so you’ll be seeing us a lot more often…​

Java SE 11

Yes, we did it! Open Liberty 19.0.0.1 works with Java SE 11. We tested it and everything. Several times. Just to be sure. And we’re good. Java SE 11 is the first long-term support major release since Java 8, so it’s a bit of a Big Deal. Take a look at Andy Guibert’s blog post in which he talks about the other benefits of using Java SE 11, how to get your Open Liberty apps running on Java SE 11, and any caveats that might affect you.

HTTP Forwarded and X-Forwarded-* headers

Eduardo Breijo blogged about the new headers support back in December when they appeared in the Open Liberty development builds. This support means that programmers and applications can obtain the original client endpoint information presented by a proxy or a load balancer using the Forwarded or X-Forwarded-* headers instead of the current TCP connected endpoint. This information can be retrieved using certain Servlet API calls or the NCSA Access Log. Eduardo explains more in his blog post and describes how to use it.

Four-weekly release schedule

In 2019, we have more frequent releases coming at you, starting with Open Liberty 19.0.0.1. This is a significant change from our previous three-monthly release schedule. The main benefit of this change is that, as a developer, you can now more quickly get enhancements, fixes and security updates as they are ready through Maven or Docker Hub. Of course, if you don’t want to work on the latest release all the time, you don’t have to. Alasdair Nottingham explains more in his blog post.